Project-Based Learning: Engaging Middle School

StudentsRegina Grant-New Hanover County Schools

Student pursue solution to

nontrivial problems• Asking and refining questions

• Debating ideas

• Designing plans and/or experiments

• Collecting and analyzing data

• Drawing conclusions

• Communicating their ideas and findings to others

Design Features of Project-Based Instruction

A major hurdle in implementing project-based curricula is that it requires simultaneous changes in curriculum, instruction and assessment practices—changes that are often foreign to the students as well as the teachers (Barron, Schwartz, Vye, Moore, Petrosino, Zech, Bransford, and CTGV, 1998).

Four design principles1. Defining learning appropriate goals that lead to deep

understanding.2. Providing support such as beginning with engaging problems that

lead to learning before completing projects, using teaching embedded in the doing of the project in a “just in time” manner, and technology support.

3. Including multiple opportunities for formative self-assessment.4. Developing social structures that promote participation and

revision.

The Benefits of Project-Based Instruction

Project-based instruction appears to be an equal or slightly better pedagogy for producing gains in academic achievement, although results vary with the quality of the project and the level of student engagement (Krajcik, 1998).

Project-based instruction is not appropriate as a method for teaching certain basic skills such as reading or computation; however, it does provide an environment for the application of those skills.

Evidence shows that project-based instruction enhances the quality of learning and leads to higher-level cognitive development through students’ engagement with complex, novel problems (Krajcik, Czerniak,and Berger, 1998).

According to the Buck Institute for Education teachers

Integrates curriculum areas, thematic instruction, and community issues.

Encourages the development of habits of mind associated with lifelong learning, civic responsibility, and personal or career success.

Overcomes the dichotomy between knowledge and thinking, helping students to both “ know” and “do.”

Challenges Raised Concerning Project-Based Learning

Students sometimes have difficulty with:

1. Generating meaningful scientific questions

2. Managing complexity and time

3. Analyzing and evaluating data

4. Developing a logical argument to support claims

Teachers sometimes have difficulty with:

1. Time

2. Classroom Management

3. Control

4. Support for Student Learning

5. Assessment

The Student in Project-Based

Instruction• Students can be responsibility

for the creation of both the question and activities, as well as the nature of the artifacts.

• Additionally, teachers or curriculum developers can create questions and activities.

Students’ freedom to generate artifacts is critical

Through the process of generation that students construct their own knowledge

Artifacts are concrete and explicit (e.g. a model, report, consequential task, videotape, or film)

This allows others to provide feedback, makes the activity authentic, and permits learners to reflect on and extend their knowledge and revise their artifacts.

Projects can thus serve as bridges

Phenomena in the classroom and real-life experiences.

Questions and answers that arise in daily enterprise are given value and are proven open to systematic inquiry. Project-based education

requires active engagement of students’ effort over an extended period of time.

Project-based learning also promotes links among subject matter disciplines and presents and expanded

Projects are adaptable to different types of learners and learning situations.

Asan, A., & Haliloğlu, Z. (2005)concluded that development of cooperative and collaboration skills gave the students the knowledge in practical and theoretical life problems through project-based learning.

Hantla (2014 )

The most widely popular manifestation of flipped teaching is with the synchronous model of flipped teaching where students work through the curriculum at the same pace, watching the same videos as homework and coming to class together to deepen their learning through interactive groups, active learning, or projects-based teaching techniques.

Hantla (2014) discussed how can classroom teachers get their students to perform well on externally imposed high-stakes tests? What is the best way that Christian schoolteachers can implement technology into their instruction to help their students make a Christian impact in a 21st-century marketplace? These are critical questions that Hantla (2014) address with this exciting iteration of the blended learning model called the flipped classroom.

Grant, & Branch (2005 )explained that cooperating teachers chose to limit the collaborations in the collaborations in the project-based until to peer reviews, because of a variety of individual differences and opportunities to learn and represent diversity.

Four Stages of Inquiring: Applying Theory to Projects in PowerPoint

Searching

Solving

Creating

Sharing

References

Asan, A., & Haliloğlu, Z. (2005). Implementing project based learning in computer. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 4(3), 68-81. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

Barron, B. J. S., Schwartz, D. L., Vye, N. J., Moore, A., Petrosino, A., Zech, L., Bransford, J. D., and CTGV (1998). Doing with understanding: lessons from research on problem-and project- based learning. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 7(3&4), 271-312.

Blumenfeld, P. C., Soloway, E., Marx, R. W., Krajcik, J. S. Guzdial, M., & Palincsar, A. (1991). Motivating project-based learning: Sustaining the doing, supporting the learning. Educational Psychologist, 26 (3 & 4), 369-398.

Carter, E. W., Clark, N. M., Cushing, L. S., & Kennedy, C. H. (2005). Moving from elementary to middle school: Supporting a smooth transition for students with severe disabilities. Teaching Exceptional Children, 37(3), 8-14. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database.

Hantla, B. F. (2014). Flip your classroom: Reach every student in every class every day, Christian Education Journal, 11(1), 183-188. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/ 1517636103?accountid=12085